


(call my bluff) call you babe

by afire



Series: light pink sky [2]
Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, hope just has no idea what's going on, lizzie thinks all of this is the funniest thing in the world, not sponsored by Nintendo(tm), pen's a goblin n josie's in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22462915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afire/pseuds/afire
Summary: Penelope knows something. Josie knows it too, eventually.(or: they play some high stakes mario kart)
Relationships: Penelope Park/Josie Saltzman, background Hope Mikaelson/Lizzie Saltzman
Series: light pink sky [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616233
Comments: 18
Kudos: 250





	(call my bluff) call you babe

**Author's Note:**

> Those of you who said you wanted a sequel, so did I apparently.

Penelope's laugh swings on the afternoon breeze as she runs, full speed, toward the trees that border the park.

  
Josie doesn't bother giving chase, just stands her ground and tries not to explode. There's enough concentrated rage in her body that if she so much as opens her mouth it'll probably spill out like lava.

  
Ahead of her, Penelope comes to a dead stop in front of Hope, who's just wandered through the gated entrance of the park. They have some sort of conversation that Josie can't quite hear, but that might just be all the anger clogging up her ears.

  
Penelope glances over at her, grins wide enough that all her teeth are visible, even at a distance. Josie considers ripping them out one by one just for the fun of it.

  
Hope smacks Penelope on the shoulder, then says something that causes the both of them to erupt into giggles.

  
"They're so irritating sometimes."

  
Lizzie appears out of nowhere. Josie jumps, startled, and for a moment forgets that she's mad at Penelope.

  
"They're so irritating all the time," she says dryly. "Especially Penelope. Hate that girl, why do I still talk to her?"

  
"Because she's hilarious." Lizzie is taking the wrong side, but she keeps talking before Josie can interrupt. "Also, she's your hottest friend."

  
Josie rolls her eyes.

  
"Stop saying that."

  
"Why? Hope agrees."

  
"Why are you and Hope talking about how hot Penelope is?"

  
Lizzie shrugs.

  
"Because it's true? Just 'cause you aren't willing to admit it, doesn't mean that other people don't have eyes. Penelope being single is a hate crime. If I wasn't with Hope, I'd totally tap that."

  
Josie slugs her sister on the shoulder so hard that Lizzie lets out a yelp of pain.

  
"Fuck! What was that for!"

  
"Nothing. Everything. Just shut up."

  
Josie frowns, staring down at her own hands. The rage is back, but it feels slightly different. She's too keyed up right now to think about it though, and so shoves it to the back of her mind to mull over later.

  
"I've decided to forgive you, but only because you look like you're about to blow a fuse."

  
Josie forgot that Lizzie's still here.

  
"I'm going to murder Penelope with my own two hands," she says, in lieu of a proper response.

  
Lizzie nods sagely.

  
"Right, right. What did she do again? Other than be gorgeous, I mean."

  
"If you don't stop talking right now, I'm going to murder you first."

  
"Okay, Jo. Let's take a deep breath. Let's also remember that we're in a public location, so if you murder me, or Penelope, you probably won't get away with it."

  
"I can handle prison."

  
"You absolutely cannot handle prison. You almost cried yesterday because you couldn't find a straw for your juice box."

  
Josie swings her arm out again, but this time Lizzie's ready for it. She catches Josie's fist, gently pushing it back down.

  
"Okay, what's up. For real, I mean. Why are you mad at Penelope?"

  
"You know how I've been trying to get the first place trophy in the Triforce Cup?"

  
"Sure," Lizzie says, because she does know, on account of the fact that she's had to witness Josie kick and scream about Mario Kart for all of the past two weeks. "The one with Rainbow Road."

  
"I was coming first in Hyrule Circuit-"

  
"The last race."

  
"-and I would've won! The finish line was right there!"

  
"But?"

  
"But!" Josie kicks at the ground, aware that she's acting like a small child, but not caring enough to do anything about it. "Pen grabbed my Switch and ran off."

  
Lizzie is quiet for a moment, then she starts laughing.

  
Josie's never really considered it before, but maybe she would've been better off an only child.

  
"This isn't funny!"

  
"It's kind of funny. I mean, I can't believe she did that, but this is what I meant when I said she's hilarious."

  
"You can have her." Josie crosses her arms, watching as Penelope says something else and Hope erupts into giggles yet again. "I'll find someone else to be friends with."

  
"Really? Great, because there's this new exhibit at the museum that I really want to check out."

  
"Why don't you just go with Hope?"

  
"She'd be bored out of her mind the whole time. I know she'll come if I ask, but I'd rather go with someone who's actually interested."

  
Josie's struggling to think of other reasons why Lizzie shouldn't take Penelope to the museum. She doesn't manage to come up with anything, but now there's also the question of why she even cares this much.

  
Life does not have to be this difficult, and yet.

  
"I'm going home," Josie says. Then, as if to prove her point, makes a complete one-eighty and starts walking toward the gate at the other end of the park.

  
"Taking the long way?" Lizzie calls after her. Because, of course, there's a gate in front of them, and it opens right onto the street that leads to their house.

  
Josie doesn't want to take the long way, but she's already started walking, and turning around would be admitting defeat. So she doesn't.

  
This pride of hers is going to get her killed one day, but at least she'll go down having won the argument.

  
In all honesty, the long way isn't actually that long, Josie just likes to complain about having to take it when the other gate is closed. It adds maybe ten minutes to her journey home, and right now, having some extra peace and quiet doesn't sound like too bad an idea.

  
Unfortunately, neither the peace nor the quiet last very long at all.

  
"Ma'am, can you spare a second of your time to talk about the environment?"

  
By some divine stroke of extreme misfortune, Penelope's caught up to her.

  
"Don't even try it." Josie hates how she doesn't sound convincing at all, even to herself. She's great at holding grudges, except when it concerns Penelope. It's impossible to stay mad at the other girl, which is annoying. "I'm still angry."

  
"Cool." Penelope sounds extremely unbothered. "How long is this going to last?"

  
"Ten minutes," Josie mutters, knowing that it'll probably be more like five. "Where's my Switch?"

  
"Lizzie took it; said she wanted to try that race you can't ever win."

  
"I would've won if you didn't steal my Switch at the last second!"

  
Penelope jogs a few paces, then turns so that she's facing Josie and walking backwards, hands in her pockets like she's some kind of cool kid.

  
She is, but Josie's not about to tell her that.

  
"You can just try again later." Penelope shrugs. "It's a game, Josie. You can try as many times as you want."

  
"I don't want to," Josie grumbles, trying not to be too impressed by how Penelope has already unseeingly sidestepped two trees, all without glancing back even once. "Trying again sucks, I just want to win."

  
"We don't always get second chances." Penelope spins around the open gate, reaching to nudge Josie to the side so that her shirt doesn't get caught on the latch. "You should take them whenever you can."

  
"Are you really giving me a lecture right now?"

  
Penelope laughs, soft and warm. Josie's stomach does several backflips, then one frontflip, just for good measure.

  
"Oh, Jojo. I simply wouldn't dare."

  
Now that they've turned left onto the street that leads to Josie's place, Penelope is walking backwards into the rose-gold glow of a summer sunset. It darkens her green eyes to a deep hazel, highlights the edges of her cheekbones.

  
Josie doesn't trip over her own feet, but it's a near thing.

  
"Good," she says, because her cognitive ability has regressed to the point where she can only process one word at a time.

  
Penelope smiles like she knows a secret. The kind of smile that would be annoying if its wearer weren't so pretty.

  
Josie's mind rewards her with one more word.

  
"What?"

  
"Nothing." They've reached Josie's front door. Still smiling, Penelope picks up the third pot from the right and grabs the key that lies underneath it. "Don't worry about it."

  
Josie watches as her best friend unlocks the door to her home, can't quite work out why the image makes her so happy.

  
**&.**

  
It's ten in the morning on a Saturday, which means that Hope is likely still asleep. Fortunately, her front door is unlocked, and Josie waltzes her way in with little to no resistance.

  
Hope's parents are both in the kitchen, and they wave at Josie as she passes, so used to seeing her around the house that her presence in the early morning isn't anything out of the ordinary anymore.

  
The only non-family person they see more of is probably Lizzie, but she's not here right now. She'd left early to go to the museum with Penelope, which is part of the reason why Josie's here.

  
Not that she'd ever admit it, out loud or otherwise.

  
Josie's quiet as she climbs the stairs, careful not to make too much noise, but the moment she steps it into Hope's room, all bets are off.

  
"Mikaelson! Time to get up!" There's no visible movement from the pile of blankets in the middle of Hope's bed, but Josie is undeterred. "Come on! We're going somewhere!"

  
Still nothing, but Josie's pretty sure she hears a muffled, yet still very distinct, voice mumble something along the lines of, "Shut the fuck up and go away."

  
It sounds exactly like Hope, except softer, because she's under a pile of blankets.

  
Josie does neither of those things. Instead, she steps forward and delivers a swift kick into the soft edge of the mattress.

  
In response, an arm darts out from underneath the blankets, wraps around Josie's legs, and tugs.

  
Josie is, of course, not expecting a direct attack, and her knees buckle, hitting the mattress just as Hope expertly rolls out of the way.

  
"Josette," she says, after her head pops up from the swaddle of blankets. "To what do I owe the pleasure? And at this hour, no less."

  
"We need to go to the museum."

  
Seconds after the sentence leaves her mouth, Josie finds herself facedown on the mattress.

  
"That's the worst thing I've ever had to hear at ten in the morning," Hope says, the quilt that she'd pulled out from under Josie's knees still in her hands. "I am going back to sleep. Please leave the premises."

  
"No, wait!" Josie lunges forward, grabs a handful of Hope's hoodie. "Please come with me. I'll buy you breakfast on the way, we can stop at that café you really like."

  
Hope looks incredulously at her.

  
"Dude, are you serious right now? You woke me up at ten in the morning on a Saturday just to go to the museum? And you're willing to buy me a six dollar donut to make it happen?"

  
"I'll get you coffee too."

  
"Damn, alright." Hope disentangles herself from her collection of blankets. "Why do you even want to go?"

  
Josie unlocks her phone and navigates to her Safari app, tries her best to be casual about it.

  
"Uh, I want to look at the ... the Ancient Greece: Triumph and Tragedy exhibit."

  
"Sounds boring. Give me ten minutes to get ready."

  
**&.**

  
Josie drops a cool ten dollars on Hope's breakfast, then another twenty-four on their museum tickets.

  
It's a noble sacrifice, all things considered. Josie doesn't stop to think about why, exactly, they're at the museum. It's not something she wants to dwell on at the moment.

  
"I hope you love this exhibit more than anything in the world," Hope says, watching as Josie hands her debit card over to the woman behind the counter.

  
"You know, you are the heir to an empire of nightclubs. You could've bought our tickets."

  
"I'm not the one who wanted to be here." Hope makes a good point. "I'll buy us lunch though."

  
"And mochi for dessert?"

  
"Sure."

  
Every thirty-four dollar cloud has its sugary silver lining.

  
**&.**

  
Josie completely bypasses the first three rooms of the exhibit. Hope doesn't say anything even though it's obvious that she wants to.

  
They track a winding path through the museum, dodging tour guides and strollers. Josie stops a few times, pretends to read one of the little information boards while Hope plays a game on her phone.

  
This continues for a solid forty minutes before Hope looks up and asks, loudly, "Hey, when do you think we'll be done? I'm getting hungry-"

  
She chokes on the rest of her sentence as Josie slams a hand over her mouth.

  
"Sorry," Josie whispers, wincing as her friend glares at her. "I need you to be quiet." She slowly takes her hand back, relaxing when she sees that Hope's not about to start yelling. "Look, over by the giant statue."

  
Hope turns to face the direction that Josie's pointing in, brightening when she sees who's there.

  
"It's Lizzie! And Pen! Let's go say hi!"

  
Josie wraps her fingers around Hope's wrist, stopping her from running forward.

  
"Uh, we can't."

  
Hope spins back around.

  
"Why not? Pen's there too, don't you want to hang out? Are you still mad at her for the Mario Kart thing? I thought you'd be over that by now."

  
"I am over it, you know I can't stay mad at Pen for longer than ten minutes. And I do want to hang out, just not right now."

  
"Why not? You always want to hang out with Pen. I've never seen you say no to hanging out with Pen. You'll say no to hanging out with me because Pen also asked and you'd rather spend the afternoon with her."

  
Josie's not quite sure what to say to that.

  
"Sorry?"

  
"Oh, it's fine. I don't care. Lizzie always wants to hang out with me."

  
There's a parallel there that Josie's too frazzled to draw at the moment.

  
"We just ... can't let them know we're here."

  
"Why not?"

  
Ah, the million dollar question. Unfortunately, Josie doesn't have a proper answer. And she's not interested in finding one right now.

  
"We just can't! Now c'mon, they're going somewhere else."

  
Hope grumbles something under her breath, but follows dutifully. Josie makes a mental note to buy her another donut on their way home.

  
They stay a few paces behind Lizzie and Penelope for a full hour and a half. Hope returns to the game on her phone, but Josie's eyes are on her sister and her best friend.

  
Every so often, Penelope will point at something, and Lizzie will lean closer, presumably out of interest. Josie thinks, for the second time in as many days, that perhaps she would've been better off an only child.

  
"Dude, chill out."

  
"Huh?"

  
Josie blinks, returning from her momentary astral projection into a sea of irrational annoyance to find Hope looking up at her, blue eyes wide.

  
"Why are you so heated?"

  
"I'm not!"

  
"If you channeled the force of your anger into spinning around, you'd drill a hole through the floor."

  
Josie looks down at her feet.

  
"That would wreck my shoes."

  
Hope looks down as well.

  
"Huh, I guess it would."

  
They spend so long just staring down at their shoes that, when Josie looks back up, Lizzie and Penelope have disappeared.

  
"Ah, fuck. We lost them."

  
"Lost who?"

  
Josie yelps, spinning around to find Penelope's curious smile, familiar in its warmth. Behind her, Lizzie's also smiling, excepts hers looks more like the devil's own grin.

  
"Nothing! No one!" Josie scrambles for an answer, knowing that if she lets Hope speak, the other girl will just tell the truth, which is not what they should be doing right now. "I was just saying words."

  
Lizzie chooses this moment to join the conversation.

  
"Yes, that's what people do to form sentences," she explains, the grin on her face a stark contrast to the cheerful tone she's using.

  
If Josie were holding something, it would be flying through the air toward her sister's face right now.

  
"Elizabeth."

  
"Yes, Josette?"

  
"I will kill you."

  
"Okay, anyway." Penelope steps into Josie's line of sight, blocking her view of Lizzie and leaning forward to grab her hand. "Do you want to go look at the dinosaurs?"

  
Josie doesn't realise she's walking until Penelope tugs gently on her fingers, a prompt to answer the question she hasn't fully heard.

  
"Dinosaurs?"

  
"I asked if you wanted to go look at the dinosaurs." Penelope slows to a stop, backs up to lean against one of the museum's many marble walls. Josie suddenly doesn't know what to do with herself. "Do you?"

  
"Um, weren't you halfway through the Greek stuff? Don't you want to finish looking at that?"

  
"Nah, it's fine." Penelope shrugs, head tilting to the side as she meets Josie's eyes. "Hey, why were you and Hope in that section? I can't believe she agreed to visit the museum."

  
Josie takes a step back, watching as Penelope stumbles after her because they're still holding hands.

  
"Let's go look at the stegosaurus," she says, expertly dodging the question.

  
Penelope lets it slide, because she's nice like that.

  
"Okay, but after that I want to look at the-"

  
"Pterodactyls. I know."

  
**&.**

  
Lizzie makes it her job to not let Josie forget about her little slip-up. In fact, she brings it up at every given opportunity. Even if they're talking about something completely different.

  
"Remember when you followed us around at the museum?" she asks, while they're stepping through the door of someone's house party, after Josie's made a comment about the number of people already there.

  
Kids who go to high school are almost always the same in every aspect of their lives. They like leaving things to the absolute last minute. It doesn't matter if the deadline for something is six years in the future, they'll finish it the night before.

  
Summer's no different. Nothing happens for the first two months, and then in the last weeks of their freedom, suddenly everyone is throwing parties. Josie won't say she hates them, but they aren't her first choice of Friday night activity either. She's only here tonight because Lizzie had asked, and she'd wanted to be a good sister.

  
Clearly a bad decision on her part.

  
"I don't know you anymore." Josie starts walking in a random direction. "Also, I'm going somewhere else now."

  
"Bye! Make good choices!"

  
Lizzie doesn't sound even the least bit sorry, which is kind of infuriating, but Josie will never win this argument. She's just lucky that Penelope doesn't also tease her about it. The idea of those two teaming up to do something is terrifying enough that Josie doesn't want to think about it for too long.

  
She pushes her way through yet another group of strangers, arrives in the kitchen with a sigh of relief.

  
"Jojo?"

  
Josie spins, and the smile that spreads across her face when she spots Penelope is entirely instinctive.

  
"Pen! You're here!"

  
"Hope threatened to drag me out the door if I didn't come with her."

  
"And?"

  
"And then immediately ditched me once we got here."

  
"Five bucks says she's found Lizzie."

  
"No bet," Penelope says dryly. "I don't even have five bucks on me right now."

  
"But if you did?"

  
"Still no bet, I'm not in the business of giving money away."

  
"Well, I tried."

  
Penelope laughs.

  
"What do you need five bucks for?"

  
"I'm hungry. Lizzie wouldn't let us stop at the store on the way."

  
"Oh, here." Josie watches as Penelope pulls a bag of Doritos out from behind her, like some sort of magician. "Swiped them from Hope's pantry while she was looking for her shoes."

  
"You're the best."

  
Penelope rolls her eyes, but she's smiling as she hands the bag over. "I know," she says. "Also, there's a Switch in the basement and I'm pretty sure they have Mario Kart."

  
Josie's already got four chips in her mouth, so instead of trying to say anything, she just starts walking toward the door.

  
**&.**

  
It seems weird that someone would just leave their expensive gaming console out in the open. Josie feels a little bad for using it without permission, but has enough experience in distancing herself from her own morals that it doesn't really matter.

  
She picks Pink Yoshi once the screen loads up, watches as Penelope picks King Boo, then navigates over to the Triforce Cup.

  
Josie must make a noise, because Penelope looks over, green eyes bright in the darkness of the basement.

  
"Do you want a different one?"

  
At this point, the Triforce Cup feels like an age-old enemy that Josie's never going to defeat. So maybe she does want a different one, if only so she can actually win.

  
But a race with no consequences is a race that's no fun. And it's about time she stops lying to herself about why she does things.

  
"No, we can play this one." Josie sits up, giving her arms a stretch. "And if I win, you have to go on a date with me."

  
Penelope doesn't even flinch, just grins and turns back to the screen.

  
"Alright, Jojo. You've got yourself a deal."

  
**&.**

  
Josie's played Mario Kart with Penelope a grand total of one time, and she doesn't remember her best friend being this good at it.

  
As it is, they go into the last race with the exact same score.

  
It is becoming increasingly possible that Penelope doesn't actually want that date.

  
"Toad just sent a blue shell."

  
"You know what? I hope he dies, and I hope it hurts. I hope his family has to watch."

  
The blue shell hits, of course, and Josie watches as five other cars zoom past her, including Penelope.

  
Right, this is why she hates the Triforce Cup.

  
Josie manages to pull back into second place, but Penelope stays resolutely in first all the way through their third lap, and remains there as she crosses the finish line.

  
They're both silent as the highlights play. Josie stares down at the controller in her hands, wonders if she's supposed to be sad about losing, or about not getting that date.

  
"Josie." Penelope is looking at her, smiling in that way she always does, like she's the keeper of a thousand secrets. "Do you want to try again?"

  
And that, Josie thinks, is tonight's million dollar question.

  
**&.**

  
Lizzie bursts through the door.

  
"You're sleeping with Penelope!"

  
Josie looks up from her Instagram feed. 

  
"I am? Pen, you should've told me. I would've put my phone down."

  
Penelope, stretched out at the other end of Josie's bed, laughs into the pages of her book.

  
"I didn't mean right now, obviously." Lizzie stalks in, arms crossed. "How long has this been going on? Why didn't you tell me?"

  
"I don't have to tell you everything," Josie snaps, shoulders tightening in irritation. Cool fingers slide along the inside of her wrist, and she relaxes, turning to smile gratefully at Penelope. "I mean, I thought you knew."

  
"You two have been dancing around each other for your whole lives. How was I supposed to know when it became the real thing?"

  
"A week ago," Penelope interjects, probably because she doesn't want to play mediator for the Saltzman twins yet again. "After that party."

  
Lizzie pauses, the cogs in her brain whirring as she tries to put two and two together. It clicks a couple of seconds later.

  
"What the hell happened at that party?"

  
"Jojo won a bet," Penelope says. Then she smiles, bright and happy, before going back to her book.

  
Josie grins too, unable to help herself. "Can you go now?" she asks, making it clear that the question is for her sister.

  
"Fine, but we're not done talking about this."

  
Lizzie leaves and does not close the door behind her.

  
"I hate her," Josie says, loud enough for her voice to carry down the hall. She gets up, stretching a leg out to kick the door shut.

  
Penelope laughs.

  
"No, you don't."

  
"Sometimes, I really actually do."

  
Josie flops back down onto her bed, rolls over so that she can rest her head in Penelope's lap.

  
Penelope smiles down at her, a real smile, one where her eyes go all squinty. Josie feels her heart speed up.

  
"I love you, though."

  
"Love you too, silly girl."

  
"Your silly girl," Josie mumbles, snuggling closer and letting her eyes drift shut.

  
"Yeah," Penelope says, voice soft, the closing cadence in summer's last lullaby. "My silly girl."

**Author's Note:**

> josie: i spend all my time with penelope because she makes me happy and i don't like being away from her  
> also josie: what does it mean? what does it all mean?
> 
> title is lyrics from 'it's nice to have a friend' by taylor swift
> 
> find me on twitter @scorpiowaltz and on curiouscat @superace
> 
> also on tumblr @softpluto if that's your jam


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